11.11.2008
Czech Filharmony Orchestra
Classical music in the beautiful classicist building Rudolfinum
My grandfather and grandmother have bought a season ticket for concerts of classical music. Unfortunately, my grandma is sick now (hope she gets better soon), so I was invited to go to the concert instead of her. It was really an interestign experience
The first thing one notices when one enters the building is the beautiful interior – lots of paintings, decorations and classicism architectonical style. Microphones were hanged from the roof above the orchestra, so it made me wonder whether they record every concert. We were sitting in roughly a middle row closer to the left. The reason why I'm saying this is that my granddad told me they had picked up those seats because they were told that this row is the best in terms of both the acustics and the visibility. If one sits too close, some of the instruments are too loud and on the other hand if one sits too far, one can hardly see the musicians.
The orchestra was playing songs composed by 3 composers – Martinu und Mahler were two of them and I guess you might know them. There were several breaks in between the songs, but one was supposed to applaud only when all the songs by one artists were finished. You're guessing correctly the it was hard for me to find out when to clap my hands and when not. No big embarresment, though :) In addition, it's really funny that when the song is being playes everybody tries to keep quiet (naturaly), but after the song was finished everybody started coughing. It seemed as though everybody was waiting for that moment ... finally be allowed to cough, but I guess some of the people coughed just because everyone else was coughing as well. Why not to cough, if one has the chance now, right? :)
The person that interested me the most was the conductor. I was wondering whether every conductor moves his hands in the same way and if every little movement has its own meaning. I had the opportunity to talk with my granddad's friend who used to play the violin in the czech filharmony orchestra and he gave me lots of interesting answers. To begin with, he said every conductor has his own movements (a famous american conductor used just his right hand fingers, he said, but i'd have to see that myself). Furthermore, it's not really important to make dramatic movements – the orchestra just has to follow the given pace. The conductor's main task, though, is to balance all the instruments and especially balance them in the terms of loudness. Thus, he gives orders to particular players to either quiet down or to play louder. He also prepares this in advance which in turns means that every song is slightly different depending on the conductor. On top of that, one recognizes a good conductor by the fact that one can hear more from the music then what's just in the dots. The song should carry MORE – a message maybe. It could be a message about a struggle or love or whatever else, but there should be something. It's interesting that this kind of an approach is common to all profesionals who really enjoy their work. For example, matematicians find beauty in the mathematical problems that no one else can see (ordinary man would call such a mathematican crazy I guess :)). Mr. Spelina also told me that I probably won't hear this MORE in the music ... and yeahhh, I didn't.
It might look from above that I just focused on everything else but the music. However, I actually really enjoyed it :) It's interesting to close your eyes and just listen. Especially the last part by Mahler was really really good.
I normally don't listen to classic music, but I like going to the live performances once in a while. In fact, the classic music and heavy metal (to which I listen the most) have lots in common. If you listen to bands like Dream Theater or Nightwish you'll find out that lots of things are similar. Furthermore, if one reads the lyrics, one will realize that they are not just a meaningless scream. But this is a theme for another article.
3.11.2008
Being sick
A bit of thinking about sickness
I've been sick for a couple of days. Let's have a look at how it all started. We went to celebrate the end of the orienteering season (yeah ... famous Kapr) which means lots of fun, but also partying and running for two days with just a bit of sleep. I got a cold after that ... coughing and running nose ... However, it wasn't that bad and it even got better soon after, so I thought I was all right and didn't really pay attention to it. Maybe I just didn't want to have a break, so I kept going. As it turned out later this kind of impatience is not a good idea. But we'll get to that later. Then after two weeks of having a cold I went for a run as usually, but I wasn't feeling ok. Thus, I applied a method of doctor Trckova. It as as follows. When one doesn't feel good one goes for a run. If one feels fine after, everything is good. On the other hand, if one feels tired and not ok, it means something is wrong. Futhermore, one usually ends up being sick anyways because of the run. Therefore, the run catalyzes to illness so to say. It shows whether there's any and if yes it speeds up the process of getting it. So I went for a run the next day and my cheek cavity or sinus (not sure what the right word for it is) started to hurt. I went to see my doctor and I was told it's an inflammation. I got antibiotics and were asked to come after a week for a check-up.
Do you have the same feeling that only one condition isn't enough to make you sick? Every time I think about why I got sick I always can find many and it's true in this case as well.
After two days of antibiotics I started to feel fine. In fact, if I wasn't told I was sick, I wouldn't know it. Thus, up to the present day being sick is more like a relaxation. One can just lie in a bed and has lots of time for things one usually doesn't have time for. So far I've read three books, watched some movies, talked with friends I haven't talked for a while, looked up some stuff about watching TV through a satellite and more. Now tell me honestly, isn't being sick actually healthy?
30.10.2008
Teaching English
... what happens when one changes the role of a student for a role of a teacher
One of the many things I realized in Canada was that I like teaching. Thus, when I was back home and thinking about getting a part time job it came sort of naturally to say "Ok, I'm gonna teach English!"
There were basically three main reasons for that. First, in my opinion teaching is a really interesting thing to do. Secondly, I wanted to use the English skills I had learnt in Canada and finally, it looked like somebody would pay me for doing those two! Then I asked my classmate who teaches Spanish and English if the company she's working for is looking for new teachers. She said yes, so I went to an interview, had a try out lesson with two other teachers and then I was "ready" to teach myself. I was supposed to substitute for another teacher in a class of beginners. Moreover, there should have been around 7 students – women with the average age of 35. It turned out later that theese are the typical students that study English in such courses. Unfortunately, there were no men in the class I had, so I can't tell whether the following difference between the female and male students is true or not. ... The typical woman comes to the class with a notebook, textbook, her own dictionary and lots of pencils and highlighters. On the other hand, if you ask the typical male student to write something down, he takes a creased piece of paper from the back pocket of his jeans and asks the woman in front of him for a pencil. However, one should know that this story comes from a female teacher and I'm still waiting for the chance to check it out myself. But it sounds probable :)
When the lesson started I was feeling a bit nervous, but it actually would have been strange not to feel nervous. Futhermore, I've got the following experience from the orienteering competitions. If I'm not feeling nervouse before the start, it means I won't do well in that race. So, I was teaching the stuff I had prepared and everything was running smoothly. There were only two exceptions – I almost ended the class after 60 minutes instead of 90 (It was like we don't have enough time to finish this .... but hey, maybe we still have half an hour) and then we did an exercise (listening to a song and filling in the missing words in its lyrics and singing that song afterwards) that I thought would make the students relax. However, I think it actually made both them and me relax. I enjoyed the lesson and I hope the students weren't scared too much, because it was their first class this year. Hopefully, they came back again.
Now I teach 5 students and we have classes every Thursday. I have a feeling that we all learn something from every lesson – they hopefully something about English and I about teaching. I find it really challenging to come up with an exercise that fits the level of the students. For example, when teaching about the present perfect, it's hard to figure out what to teach and what not to teach. If one tells them too much, they'll think it's too complicated and they'll soon give up. On the other hand, if you don't tell them enough, they'll think: "Oh, that's so easy" and then they will have trouble with the exercises (and you don't dare to tell them that nobody really cares about this tense in America). I also found out that it's good if all the stuff you do with the students is somehow connected. For example, if they learn something about the present perfect it's nice if it appears in the article they are supposed to read. Then the next lesson they learn some new vocabulary and if they want to use it, they need the present perfect again. Therefore, they learn it even if they didn't do the homework :) Futhermore, I've heard a funny comment from a teacher: "If you're happy and smilling all the time, the students will buy everything you say." He said it as a joke, but it's so true. If you look like you don't understand what you're teaching, the students will become suspicious and they won't learn anything. On the other hand, if the teacher is relaxed the students relax as well and then they learn a lot. I also think that one learns the most when one figures it out oneself. I don't really know yet how to apply this to teaching English, though. However, I hope the news the students are asked to prepare for the beginning of every class work a bit in that way.
After I tried to teach students myself, our high school classes became very interesting – especially English. Now when one is a student again, one's point of view about the teacher changes. I started to look not just at WHAT they teach us, but HOW they teach us and if one looks at that after one tried to teach oneself it's really interesting. Now you can ask how effective this exercise is or how much do the students like it. I feel there's lots I can learn from my teachers, because they've got lots of experience. It's a pity that in English we mainly go over the final exam conversation themes like London, American History or Lifestyle or we do some exercises focused on some tricky grammar problems, because I can't use any of those for my students. If you have any tips for interesting English tasks or activities, I'd be glad if you write them to the comments.
As a bottom line I want to mention that it's lots of fun to teach students who are willing to learn something. However, I really don't want to be in the position of a high school teacher who sometimes has to teach although the students seem like they don't want to learn anything.
30.09.2008
Back to the Czech schooling system
Crazy/Absurd/Funny – if it's said in short
I've been going to the Czech school since 1st September again. I knew that my point of view about it will change after a year in Canada. Let's have a look at what has happened so far.
The first crazy/funny thing happened on the very first day. After our TA teacher read the ... I'd translate it as "students' rights and duties" ... she told us that the headmaster wanted to add something to it. The content of his message was as follows: "Please don't eat snacks of your classmates, because there were some cases of jaundice (hope it is the right word ... it's supposed to be some sort of disease) and we don't want you to get sick as well. The next day a stuff member happened to come to our classroom for some reason and she saw a kettle next to the window. My classmates used it for making coffee during the breaks. As soon as she realised we had such a thing in the classroom she told us we had to put it away, because it is dangerous to have it there. "However, if you have a written certificate that this particular kettle is safe you can keep it." I suggested making up "the confirmation", printing it and signing it ourselves. However, my classmates didn't realise that idea. Thus, they have no kettle now and they have to buy the coffee in the coffee machine. Well, maybe it was a coffee machine owner lobby :) ... and if you're wondering, I don't drink coffee ... yet :)
In order to contine in the same year of high school with my former classmates, I have to pass overall exams from the previous year from all the subjects ... including physed :). Almost all of them are done by now, but geography and math is still waiting. I'm happy that our headmaster has given me this chance, so I don't have to repeat one high school year. However, I think those overall exams are kind of funny. So far I've passed all of them which means either it's possible to learn all the stuff my classmates were studying the whole year in couple of days which suggests .... ehm ... that the whole year was just a waste of time or the exam is easy and that raises a question what is the purpose of writting it. Well, still two more exams to go and I'm looking forward when the whole thing is over ... and then we'll have a party!
Rouhly after a week of a regular shedule I started to have a strange feeling. For example, during history the teacher talks for 45 minutes and the students take notes. Well, what is the point of being there if you can study it yourself in 5 minutes? But ... no way of missing this class despite the fact I'm not going to have a final high school exam from history. However, I still need to be there ... to listen and to take notes ... I hate wasting time. In fact, I lot more prefer the Canadian way of teaching when students actively do something in the class. Instead of that the teacher tells you everything about WW2 and you take the notes, learn them, write the test and forget everything soon after, the teacher asks you to make a presentation about that topic for the whole class. That's lot more fun and I guess one remembers more. However, the students need to willing to do that. And this is in my opinion closely connected with the fact that the students have to take all the subjects while at high school in my country. Yes, I agree with the idea of the general education, but I think that one roughly knows what one likes to do and in which direction one wants to go in the last two year of high school. Thus, one should have the chance to pick up just a couple of subjects and not to be obligated to take them all. It'll be more fun for both the students and the teachers, because the students will be more interested and I bet it's awful trying to teach students who don't want to learn anything
So that's the situation. And what to do with it? It's not fun to feel like a university student who still has to go to high school. Moreover, I feel like we are playing some sort of an absurd game with the teachers. They pretend the stuff they teach us is important and we pretend we're learning it. However, I don't feel like geting bored during the classes and there are still many useful things one can do. Besides, why worry if it's just a game? Thus, I decided to make the most of my last high school year ... and who says it can't be fun? :)
I'm going to keep writting ... in English. So stay tunned!
P.S.: I have nothing against history – it just happened to be the example. In fact, I really like the modern history ... it's pity one finishes with the WWII and doesn't go further in most of the cases.
P.P.S: We passed the last overall exam! Officially in the last high school year again! I've got to say that most of the teachers were really friendly to us during the tests. I have a feeling that they didn't really care about the marks we were going to get, but they rather wanted to make sure we have learned and understood everything from the year we missed. I appreciate that. Thanks. In addition, the final high school exams look similar to those we just passed. It was nice that we can sort of try the final ones in advance.
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